422 MANAGEMENT ON RANGES IN THE WEST 



through the snow for many miles across the range, over which the 

 starving sheep were carefully driven, some of them so weak that it 

 was necessary to pick them up along the trail and haul them on 

 sleds to where the hay was placed. 



" In the Southwest, during the same winter, the snow would 

 have been more than welcome, for there they faced a drought which 

 caused heavy losses. The sheep had been moved to the desert ranges, 

 as usual, with expectation of lambing there. Neither rain nor snow 

 fell, and at the critical time, just as lambing was at hand, the 

 owners found they must either move the sheep or lose everything. 

 The sheep were worked to the railroad shipping points by means of 

 hay hauled into the desert, and in some cases water was hauled out 

 in tank wagons and given the sheep in troughs from the wagon. In 

 this way the animals were moved to ranges where water and feed 

 were to be had and their owners were saved from a total loss, 

 although the expenses and losses were heavy enough to offset any 

 profit on the year's business. 



" During the winter of 1899, owing to deep snows, one New 

 Mexico sheep owner lost, of his entire flock of 40,000 sheep, a total 

 of 18,000 old sheep, while in the spring of 1909 another New 

 Mexico owner lost over 12,000 spring lambs — ^his entire crop. 



" Lack of Shelter. — A study of the situation and conditions 

 frequently shows losses to be due to a lack of shelter on the range. 

 A ' norther ' sweeps down across the country, and one flock finds 

 shelter under a low range of hills or a few scattering cedars, while 

 the other, lacking these essentials, drifts into some ravine or dry 

 wash, under the sheltering banks of which they find apparent security 

 from the storm. But the drifting snow falls into the wash, and the 

 sheep are rapidly covered by it, smothering to death before they can 

 be moved. Hundreds of sheep are lost every winter in this manner. 



" Poisonous Plants. — Losses from poisonous plants are also 

 very frequent. On a good range with plenty of feed few sheep are 

 lost from such causes, but when the range is over-grazed or the sheep 

 have been driven many miles over sheep trails almost as bare of 

 feed as a floor, they will eat greedily plants which they otherwise 

 would not touch. 



" Every sheepman in the Eocky Mountain region counts upon a 

 certain percentage of losses each year from poisonous plants which 

 infest the ranges, and against which there seems to be but little 

 protection. 



